(posted Sunday, but written last Friday)

We are back at the cabin after 2 weeks on the road.  The first week (or almost) was the trip to Winnipeg that was mentioned in the prior posting.  After returning from Canada, we parked the motorhome at the cabin, got a night’s sleep, and left for the Twin Cities, stopping for lunch with Joyce in Duluth on Friday, the 14^th.  Once we got Valentina home, we headed for our home-away-from-home, Brett’s place in Elk River.  With all of the road repair going on, that 34 mile drive took more than an hour.

The next morning, we stopped at Denny and Dianne’s place on the way to Don and Peggy’s wedding near Pemberton that afternoon.  The wedding turned into quite a family reunion with all of Bob’s siblings, plus a few cousins and an aunt and uncle. 

 A good time was had by all.  Congratulations Don, and welcome to the Riewes Peggy!

Then it was back to Brett’s place the same day.  At this point we’ve put on about 850 miles in 3 days.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were filled with appointments and meetings (Drs, Dentists, and advisors, plus Ron’s birthday at Pam's place).  We also spectated at a hockey tournament and one hockey practice.  We didn’t keep track of those miles!  Thursday was another 200 miles or so, back to the cabin, so on Friday we didn’t leave the peninsula.  We just had a walk around the point.

Just thinking about it brought the title to this posting.

Summer came when we were in Canada, and it lasted through the weekend.  Then the showers and cooler air came in.  We ran the fireplace yesterday and the baseboard heaters today, so it is beginning to feel like fall already.  Hopefully we will have a couple more summer-like days before we leave in a month.

Back from an International Vacation

With two of our major summer projects complete, and a good start on the third, it was time to take a break.  Valentina came from Minneapolis late last Thursday. 

We had a quiet Friday and tornado-threatened Saturday before loading up the motorhome and heading north on Sunday.  We were on our way to Winnipeg’s 46^th annual multicultural festival, called Folklorama (not to be confused with their Folk Music Festival).  Paige had been to one about 16 years ago; Bob had not been to one before; and this was Valentina’s first trip to Canada.  With a mid-day start on Sunday we took two days to get to Winnipeg, stopping for the night on the shores of Lake of the Woods at Arnessen’s Rocky Point access.  We had a great site with a wonderful sunset across Buffalo Bay.

We had a quick and easy border crossing Monday morning and stopped at the first of numerous Tim Hortons in Steinbach for mid-morning coffee and donuts.  The festival is a 2 week celebration of ethnic diversity where half of the 43 groups stage their own performances during the first week, and the rest do the same during the second week.  We missed the first week, but visited 4 different pavilions during our stay: the Russians’ and Italians’ on Monday, the Serbs’ on Tuesday, and the Romanians’ on Wednesday. 

All of these were evening presentations, filled with singing and dancing while we sampled their authentic cooking.  During the days, we visited the French district, “the Forks” historic/shopping area, the WAG (Winnipeg Art Gallery) and Winnipeg’s newest tourist attraction, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

We certainly saw a lot in our short visit.

 

Our return to the cabin was a single day of driving on Thursday.  It will be only a short rest, because we have to get Valentina home on Friday, and get to a wedding on Saturday in southern Minnesota.